Talk:Indian Empire/@comment-27510151-20171210005951
Weapons development -------- The Indian army keeps getting new and advanced weapons in its ever expanding arsenal, with the latest addition begin 2 new UAV's that will provide the army with an advantage over any foe it might face. The development of UAV's was primarily decided due to the army's requirements for advanced airborne reconnaissance,intelligence gathering, and artillery guidance systems, that didn't risk the lives of the few experienced pilots in the army. DRDO has answered this call with DRDO Nishant UAV and DRDO Rustom 2 UAV. -------- The first system is the DRDO Nishant, the DRDO Nishant is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by India's ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment), a branch of DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) for the Indian Armed Forces. The Nishant UAV is primarily tasked with intelligence gathering over enemy territory and also for reconnaissance, training, surveillance, target designation, artillery fire correction, damage assessment, ELINT and SIGINT. The UAV has an endurance of four hours and thirty minutes. Nishant has just completed development phase and user trials. The 380 kg (840 lb) Nishant UAV requires rail-launching from a hydro-pneumatic launcher and is able to be recovered by a parachute system. Launches at a velocity of 45 m/s are carried out in 0.6 seconds with 100 kW power and subsequent launches can be carried out in intervals of 20 minutes. The Mobile Hydro-Pneumatic Launcher (MHPL) system mounted on a Tatra truck weighs 14,000 kg (31,000 lb) and boasts of a life cycle of 1000 launches before requiring overhaul. Nishant is one of the few UAVs in the world in its weight-class capable of being catapult-launched and recovered by using parachute, thus eliminating the need for a runway as in case of conventional take-off and landing with wheels. Features -Day/night capability training vehicle -Battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance -Target tracking and localization -Artillery fire correction -All terrain mobility -Target designation (using integral laser target designator) -Endurance: 4 hours and 35 minutes -Range: 160km -Maximum speed and ceiling: 185kph top speed and 3600 top hight -------- The second system is the larger DRDO TAPAS-BH-201 UAV. The TAPAS-BH-201 is a long endurance Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which used to be previously referred as Rustom-II, being developed by India on the lines of the American Predator drones. First flight of the UAV took place in November 2016 after a 3-year delay. It was revealed at that time that the UAV has been renamed from Rustom-II to TAPAS-BH-201, an acronym for Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance-Beyond Horizon-201. Rustom-II was commonly believed to be an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle(UCAV) but at the press conference S Christopher, Director General of DRDO stated "Media reports are incorrect. Tapas is an UAV and not an UCAV." TAPAS-BH-201 had a successful maiden flight on 16th Nov 2016 at Challakere, 200 km away from Bengaluru in the district of Chitradurga in south Indian state of Karnataka. It was tested for take off, landing and other parameters. Ten pilotless UAV's would be produced in one year. Nine prototypes more advanced than the initial one would follow for testing prior to the beginning of certification process. Powered by twin NPO-Saturn 36MT turboprop engines, the Rustom-II is being developed as a long endurance surveillance platform capable of deploying precision weapons. With a wingspan of more than 20m and an endurance of 24–30 hours, the UCAV needs a runway to takeoff and land unlike traditional UAVs, which makes it more trustworthy. The drone can loiter autonomously at high altitudes performing real-time, high-resolution intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) with its SAR and EO sensors. When a target is identified, it will either illuminate the target with a laser designator for other strike aircraft, or descend to lower altitude and attack the target with its own air-to-surface missiles. In contrast to Rustom-I, the next generation version is equipped with enhanced aerodynamic configuration, digital flight control, navigation system, communication intelligence, medium and long-range electro-optic payloads and synthetic aperture radar that will enable it to see through the clouds. The capability of automatic takeoff and landing makes it comparable to some of the best in the world. Features -Maximum speed: 548kph -Range: >Line of sight: 250km with day/night and all weather capabilities >Relay communication: 450km -Ferry range: 1867km -Service ceiling: 14560 meters --------